


The Mirror of Epic Destiny

by pyrrhical (anoyo)



Category: Merlin - Fandom, T.H. White's Merlin
Genre: Gen, crossover-ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-10
Updated: 2010-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-18 14:21:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5931586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anoyo/pseuds/pyrrhical
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There were a great number of things that Arthur would never tell his father. It was equal only to the number of reasons that he kept them secret, really. When he stopped to think about them, he was generally awed by how many of them stemmed from petty arguments he'd had with Morgana, which led into childish displays of betting or shows of power. Someday, they would get over that, or one of them would finally just give in and kill the other. Arthur wasn't holding out for which was the likelier outcome. (In later months, Arthur had seen that list added to by things that he and Merlin had gotten into, and, really, Arthur had absolutely abysmal luck in choosing people with whom to associate.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Mirror of Epic Destiny

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted 1/11/10 [here](http://pyrrhical.livejournal.com/163769.html).

There were a great number of things that Arthur would never tell his father. It was equal only to the number of reasons that he kept them secret, really. When he stopped to think about them, he was generally awed by how many of them stemmed from petty arguments he'd had with Morgana, which led into childish displays of betting or shows of power. Someday, they would get over that, or one of them would finally just give in and kill the other. Arthur wasn't holding out for which was the likelier outcome. (In later months, Arthur had seen that list added to by things that he and Merlin had gotten into, and, really, Arthur had absolutely abysmal luck in choosing people with whom to associate.)

Arthur was never particularly sure how the arguments started. Sometimes it seemed that all he had to do was walk into Morgana's room for her to start yelling at him. Or ragging on him, critiquing him, teasing him, drawling sarcastically at him, or something else unpleasant and unnecessary.

"I'm self-centered?" he spat back, putting his hands on his hips in that way he'd seen Merlin do that always made him feel like a scolded child. "Why is it that every time I enter your chambers you're sitting in front of that mirror, fiddling with yourself in some manner or another?"

Morgana raised a scandalized eyebrow at him. "Fiddling with myself?" she repeated. "Honestly, Arthur, who taught you to speak? Every time you enter my chambers, without my permission, I might add, you come to stand perfectly behind me at my mirror, so you can see yourself just as well, so I'm not sure where you think you stand, telling me off about looking at myself in the mirror."

"Oh, really? I bet you simply stare at yourself for hours, wishing you could walk right into that mirror to join yourself, if only to have a bit more of your beauty to go around," Arthur said, thinking himself very witty for referencing that bard's tale they'd heard at a feast several months ago. "I'm very sorry to tell you that you're deluded, Morgana, but someone has to."

Rolling her eyes again, Morgana replied, "Arthur, that's absurd. The tale was about the mirror self joining the real self, not vice versa, now stop trying to appear educated."

Arthur grinned and walked up behind Morgana, grabbing her wrist and drawing it up to the mirror. "How did that work again? Oh, yes. You press your hand to the reflection of your hand, of course, and pull--"

What Arthur had not expected was a flash of light and a strange popping noise before that pull, which, all parties being honest, he really hadn't expected either, after which both he and Morgana found themselves on the floor before a mirror that looked identical to the one they had just been looking at, but in very, very different chambers.

"--pull your double through," Arthur finished lamely, glancing around what looked like a very small, very packed, insane woodman's shack. Arthur added the "insane" to his mental description because the odd assortment of items made no practical sense, and Arthur was unable to even place or recognize a good, well, most of them. And also? Some of them were moving. At Arthur's words, an ottoman had scampered from the room like a trained dog. Arthur was forced to remind himself that he was a trained knight, and trained knights neither whimpered nor clung to their female companions at the sight of a self-propelling ottoman, no matter how odd that sight may be. Now, were that female companion to initiate the clinging, it would be only dutiful to pat back, and a little tightness was allowed.

"Arthur," Morgana hissed into his ear, "what on earth did you do?"

"Me!" Arthur yelped, managing to sound annoyed. "You're the one who touched it!"

Morgana elbowed him sharply. "You are unbelievable!" Before she had a chance to continue, an elderly man with an extremely long beard stepped through the doorway, the ottoman trailing obediently behind him, along with an entire floating tea set.

"Oh, my, but we do have company," the old man said, smiling warmly. "Luckily I always make enough tea just in case company appears unannounced. Best to be prepared." He stepped out of the way for a table and chairs to walk in after him and settle in front of them. "I assumed that since you came in through the mirror, you might be most grateful for tea to come to you."

Arthur continued to gape, but Morgana answered in an admirably steady tone, "That's very kind, but may I ask where we are? And who, precisely, you are? I am terribly sorry that we have arrived unannounced, but we're not sure what happened."

The man gestured to the chairs that were pulling themselves back for both Morgana and Arthur as he sat down in his own chair and the tea poured itself for all of them. "I believe those questions will be more comfortably answered from chairs and with tea." He smiled benignly and took a sip of his tea. "I haven't even done anything to it, as you can see by my drinking it, if that's what you're worried about."

Morgana rose and sat in one of the chairs, so Arthur did the same, accepting the tea while he attempted to regain his calm as Morgana had so obviously done. Someday, he would be a tactician like that. Maybe.

"Thank you," Morgana said, after taking a sip of her tea. "I appreciate the tea. We really are very confused, however, as to where we are and what has happened."

The old man smiled and gestured to his mirror. "Well, you came through the mirror, of course." He smiled directly at Arthur this time and said, "As you are my old friend, but far too old to be my old friend, that is the only case that is plausible, and so you must have come from an alternate mirror to this mirror. As to where you are, well, you are with me, in my wood, in my cottage, drinking tea."

Arthur was very, very lost. "Wait," he managed, interjecting into whatever polite thing Morgana would have said. "I'm your too-old old friend? How is that possible? I've never met you, and how could I be too-old if I'm your old friend?" He paused. "And what do you mean, alternate mirror?"

"It will be best if I answer those questions in reverse," the old man said. "That mirror is a mirror with many alternates. As you exist, alternate versions of you exist infinitely. That's what creates an infinite universe of being, and what creates the infinite reservoir that is magic. You stepped through the mirror in your reality and out of the mirror in my reality. In my reality, that which is you does not yet exist, but soon you will, and you and I will be good friends. As for how we are already old friends, I am an accident of magic and nature, and as such have already met the you that will exist in this reality." He took another sip of his tea. "While that may not make sense, does it answer your questions?"

"Er, yes," Arthur said, drowning whatever his mouth might have forced out next in a swallow of tea.

Morgana took over once again. "Then would you, too, exist in our reality?" she asked, taking another sip of tea.

"I am certain that I do," the old man said before turning to his ottoman. "Bring us the pasties, please," he told the ottoman, which scampered off obediently, only to return with a plate of tea snacks.

"Is what you're doing magic?" Arthur asked, watching the ottoman curl up like a dog at the old man's feet.

"Of course," the old man said, patting what might have been the ottoman's head, if an ottoman could have a head. "You must recognize magic, as the concept of infinite realities depends upon it, so in order for you to be here, you must have magic in your own."

Morgana set down her teacup. "Are there realities that don't have magic, then?"

The old man nodded. "Yes. They also exist alongside our own, but we cannot travel between them, as magic and non-magic cannot coexist. They can only travel between non-magic, and we only between magic. That is how it works."

"How do you know that they exist, then?" Morgana asked, scowling.

Raising his bushy eyebrows, the old man said, "When you have been around as long as I, you learn many things."

"And who are you, then?" Arthur asked. "I mean, you obviously know who we are, but we've spent this entire conversation without knowing who you are at all."

"I assumed that as I had figured it out, you must have," the old man said, setting down his own empty teacup. "Realities run out of necessity on the same fundamental characteristics. I have known you in every reality that I have ever seen or experienced, and so I assumed that you have known me. I am Merlin."

Arthur felt his own eyebrows shoot up. Morgana managed to speak first. "I'm sorry, I think our confusion is a lack of recognition. We do know Merlin, but he's our age. We wouldn't have aged him in guessing who you were."

"Or given him a crazy magic house in the woods," Arthur said. He blinked, and then flushed. "No offense."

Morgana raised an eyebrow and glanced askance at Arthur. "Really?"

"Maybe Gaius, but--" Arthur paused. "No, all right, Merlin will probably have a crazy magic house in the woods." He flinched. "Er. Without the magic."

The old man -- Merlin, Arthur had to keep reminding himself, though he was hard put not to laugh hysterically whenever he did -- shook his head. "The fundamentals of reality do not change, as I have said. In every reality, I am a creature of magic."

Arthur sighed, and then glanced at Morgana, who raised her eyebrows at him. "Honestly, Arthur, if you think this is news, you're insulting me. Anyone with half a wit has figured it out by now. Fortunately for us all, Uther doesn't have enough wit to throw at a slug."

"Magic is illegal," Arthur explained to the bushily raised eyebrows across from him. Someday, he would be able to make fun of Merlin for turning into Gaius completely. Someday. "In our, er, reality, it's not something you just point out. We just pretend we don't notice."

"Fascinating," Merlin replied, eating a pasty.

"I'm sure it is," Morgana said, drumming her fingers once on the table. "This tea has been lovely, but I'm afraid we have to switch our attentions now to how on earth we're even getting home. Merlin, you seem to have traveled between the realities. Do you know how to get us back to our own?"

Merlin smiled charmingly at both Morgana and Arthur. "Why, of course. Simply the way you got here in the first place. Touch the mirror together, which I believe you did in order to get here. The mirror activates when the proper amount of what I believe is ironically called 'epic destiny' comes into contact with it, so that it can see different iterations of said destiny. It was created to cheat, but when it placed those destinies in random parts of alternate timelines, it didn't work precisely as planned. You should wind up precisely where you were when you left, however, as you cannot be in two places within your own reality at once, unless you possess a specific skill." Merlin's face quirked in a small grin. "Though you may try, I assure you that neither of you do. Lady Morgana, I believe you will be well advised to remember that."

Morgana blinked before she said, "Well, thank you. And thank you for the tea. I believe that we must be going, however, before anyone discovers that we are missing. Uther can become very distraught when such occurs."

Nodding, Arthur agreed, "That's very true." He pushed back his chair and walked over to the mirror, waiting as Morgana joined him before he continued, "Thank you for welcoming us into your home, and for the pleasant conversation."

"You are welcome," Merlin replied, inclining his head politely. "Best of luck to you both in the coming years." There was an amused look on his face, but a grave set to his eyes that Arthur couldn't read. He pressed one hand to the mirror and waited for Morgana to do the same, feeling himself pulled once again the moment she did so.

Both agreed that this would join the long list of things about which they never told his father. Some things were just better left in a little box marked "leave this alone until the end of days, at which time it can be thrown off a cliff, thanks and have a nice day." Arthur wasn't quite able, however, to keep a straight face for about a week's worth of watching Merlin do chores. Luckily for everyone involved, Merlin was fairly used to this, and took it in stride. Maybe Arthur's luck wasn't so abysmal, after all.


End file.
